UPDATE 1-Dubai's Emaar buys remaining 49 pct of website Namshi

Reuters Staff

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DUBAI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Dubai's Emaar Malls on Monday bought the 49 percent of e-commerce fashion website Namshi it did not own from Global Fashion Group (GFG) for 475.5 million dirhams ($129.5 million).

The owner of Dubai Mall, the Middle East's largest shopping centre, said it bought the stake in an all-cash transaction.

"We have ambitions throughout the region with Namshi so I think they are going to give us a geographic outreach that we do not have with the Dubai Mall today. So that is fundamental," Emaar Malls CEO Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne told Reuters.

Emaar Malls, the retail arm of Emaar Properties, bought a 51 percent stake in Namshi from GFG for $151 million in 2017 shortly after Amazon.com bought Dubai-based e-commerce website Souq.com.

Emaar at the time made an unsuccessful bid for Souq.com.

"Namshi is a remarkable success story with great long-term potential," Bousquet-Chavanne said. "It is an asset we are thrilled to own outright."

Bousquet-Chavanne said there would be "no job cuts whatsover" from the deal.

He also said he did not expect Namshi to collaborate with Noon.com, an e-commerce website that Emaar founder and chairman Mohamed Alabbar set up with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. ($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell Editing by David Goodman)